Annesley College's EOS Project
10 Annesley College students are in Darwin for the 2007 Panasonic World Solar Challenge, which runs through the centre of Australia from Darwin to Adelaide as of tomorrow until Saturday 27 October.
Annesley College's EOS Project: the all-schoolgirl team driving their creation - an electric/petrol hybrid Holden Viva - in the Panasonic World Solar Challenge, an event that began in Darwin today and finishes in Adelaide on Saturday.
The Greenfleet Class showcases fuel efficient technologies and low carbon fuels practical transport technologies of tomorrow.
Annesley is the only all-female team to enter the Challenge. Mortgage Choice is the proud sponsor of their EOS Project, nicknamed 'Lissie'.
Sunday October 21 - Darwin to Katherine
Girls just wanna have fun... and help the environment while doing so!
After many months of preparation, a team of 10 students from Annesley College set off from Darwin's State Square, waved off by thousands of onlookers, friends and family.
Lissie ran like a dream for each of the girls who drove, and the whole team was impressed with her petrol and electric consumption (expertly managed by each driver and navigator). The five drivers and their navigators took turns traversing the 300km from Darwin to Katherine, stopping every 60km or so to make the switch. CB radios crackled constantly between Lissie and Annesley's three support cars, ensuring the trip was safe for the team and for other drivers on the road.
Along the way, the girls encountered what will be the biggest hill of the entire trip and keenly observed the ochre, brown and green landscape. They saw plenty of new growth sprouting up from recent fires and many termite nests, as well as eagles and other birds... and even some wandering Brahman cattle.
Jemma Matthews, today's first driver of Lissie, had this to say:
"I had so much fun tooting the horn as we were driving out of State Square. I was ultra proud to be driving Lissie. It was great to see a surprising number of people there and plenty waved us as we drove out, past the Challenge flag.
"Driving in Lissie on a real road was a little nerve-wracking, even thought I’d driven her quite a bit around the race track over the last few days. At the start, I was thinking ‘please don’t stall… don’t stall!’ but then the nerves faded and we were on our way.
"We experimented a bit with the electrics and gears, and it all went well. We were totally happy with the way she drove. I had such a fun time, it was amazing. I am looking forward to the next stretch!"
The Annesley team heads to Tennant Creek tomorrow (approx. 700km away), with the petrol consumption check and fill up starting at 6:45am.
Monday October 22 - Katherine to Tennant Creek
There are so many aspects to this adventure...
"There’s no vehicle on earth that can do what we’re doing" Peter Gubbins, EOS project coordinator, 22 October 2007.
This was something said over the CB today that made us stop and think. He’s right. This adventure is not just a trip of a lifetime for the Annesley girls and their support team but an important piece of history in the making.
The Panasonic World Solar Challenge is a global event that helps to put sustainable fuel sources on the social and political agenda. It heightens the awareness of such eco issues for not only the people involved and those who know them, plus those who live in the towns the Challenge runs through, but also those who hear about the event via the media and word of mouth. How fantastic it feels to be a part of it!
Today we drove from Katherine to Tennant Creek, along a highway with tar bleached almost white by the unrelenting sunshine.
Lissie drove well again, with her drivers and navigators using instinct and knowledge gained before and during the trip (road inclines and curves = heavier or lighter pressure on the accelerator = more or less amps) to achieve the best possible fuel economy. The car averaged around 10 amps at 90 kilometres per hour, ensuring they will match or do better than the approx. 7 litres per 100 kilometre petrol usage they achieved yesterday.
Along the way, we saw a flat landscape of light green/brown flora and deep red earth. At times, with its thin blonde/orange appearance, the grass of the brush stretching out from the roadsides looked like the hair of a girl whose hair is damaged from way too much bleaching. The thin, black trunked trees had bushy foliage of a brown/green colour. Quite a few roadtrains carrying army tanks passed us, making us wonder if a war had started that we hadn’t yet heard about.
A special highlight was one of the girls, Jemma, pulling over to the side of the highway to be interviewed live on Triple J this afternoon via telephone. It was an excellent day-after-birthday present for her!
The Annesley team heads to Alice Springs tomorrow (approx. 500km away), with the petrol consumption check, fill up and sealing of tanks starting in Tennant Creek at 8am.
Tuesday October 22 - Tennant Creek to Alice Springs
Chocolate wrapper saves the day!
Who would've thought chocolate would be useful when working with auto mechanics? Know we know… Lissie ran into a bit of trouble today when a bit of insulation around a wire in the dash came adrift, so it shorted. Using our heads, we bought some Brazil nut chocolate and used the foil wrapper to fix it!
It worked wonders because the car ran smoothly for the rest of the trip to Alice Springs. Today, Lissie was pushed to 25-30 amps per 90km/hr, meaning we were using about 30% battery (electric) and 70% petrol. We're experimenting more with our little hybrid, for example, cutting out the petrol and going to electric to see how much power we're using. We'll continue to experiment with that until we've refined it.
However, we won’t underestimate again the power of a fully electric Lissie because the funniest thing happened after we tried it the first time. Sophie and Jemma decided to go for gold and use ‘fuel electrics’ after we left Ti Tree (a roadstop boasting its status of ‘Australia’s most central pub’). Immediately, the electricity kicked in hard and Lissie accelerated a lot and the girls nearly ran up the back of our lead support car!
When retelling the story, EOS Project coordinator Peter Gubbins said with a laugh, 'now THAT got my attention’.
The day started well with two of the Annesley girls being interviewed for radio before we finished packing and set off on our 500km trek to Alice. After the usual morning ritual of a Challenge official giving Lissie a fuel seal check before allowing us to refill, we chatted with other participants also filling up and emptied bags of ice into our eskies while checking the CBs. Then we headed out of a muggy Tennant Creek.
Lots of reading was done today, the chatter having decreased a bit since the beginning of the trip. The heat and length of each day’s journey has tamed us in that respect to a certain degree. However, the conversations ramp up once we realise we’re stopping to change drivers/navigators or for food or to check out a famous landmark.
Speaking of landmarks, we were all very excited to visit the Devil’s Marbles! What an awe-inspiring sight of deep orange asymmetrically round rock formations. Easily towering over you, they are confronting and beautiful at the same time. We took a good 20 minutes to wander around and over them, taking photos and running our hands over the rough surfaces. Mother Nature creates some truly breathtaking sights.
Another interesting stop was the petrol station Joanne Lees was driven to by the truck driver she flagged down after Peter Falconio went missing. The station’s interior walls are covered in photos, postcards, international currency, shirts, akubras and strange donations from locals and travellers. We were startled to see a mantle holding jars of pickled outback snakes and a large cat snoozing on the counter.
After the morning's mugginess, the weather was probably the coolest we have encountered on our journey so far. The dusty windshields even saw a sprinkle of rain.
We reached Alice in time for the two-hour public display, where we were interviewed by an enthusiastic local journalist and asked lots of questions by community members. While wandering the display we found some of the Netherlands team lazing in their kiddie pool. Now why didn’t we think of that?!
The Annesley team has a well-earned free day tomorrow, relaxing at their campsite in Alice Springs.
Thursday October 24 - Alice Springs to Coober Pedy
Time for the real test - just how fuel efficient are we?
After a full day yesterday of rest and recuperation in Alice Springs, today was our last day of driving Lissie as a petrol/electric hybrid because as of tomorrow it is time for the real test to begin: benchmarking the car’s performance over our outback trip so far to the way it would normally perform in terms of petrol consumption. We are excited to see what tomorrow will bring!
We rose early this morning for the requisite fuel check and fill up, monitored by a Greenfleet official, before setting off for the 700km drive from Alice Springs to Coober Pedy.
It was a day of pretty much straight driving, with the usual driver and navigator swap-overs. However, we saw the flattest topography so far and the most fauna for the whole road trip. CBs sprung to life every time one of the cars spotted something - a dingo, camel, goanna, wedge tailed eagles and other bird life.
In the beginning of this relatively cool day, the clouds looked like white fairly floss but soon the sky was clear of all clouds and we drove under a completely blue sky, which would have been fantastic for the solar car class of the Challenge.
The entry into Coober Pedy was a sight to remember; with the ground on either side of the road heavily covered with evidence of opal mining and warning signs of the dangers involved in walking through the area. Dinner at a local caravan and camping park was a fabulous feast of pasta carbonara, salad and apple crumble with cream that was hungrily devoured despite the mouse we spotted stalking the oven.
We have just finished listening to project coordinator Peter Gubbins giving the girls an overall run-down on the trip so far and how Lissie has been going as well as what to expect in the next couple of days, such as tomorrow morning’s community breakfast and the traditional t-shirt swap at the end of the race (our t-shirts come in blue, white or pink and are branded with Annesley, Mortgage Choice and Holden logos). He also relayed stories about previous Challenges and Hans Tholstrup’s first trip in Sunraycer.
So, now it is time for the final testing to begin, seeing as Thursday is our last full day of driving on the highway with no traffic lights, etc. How will Lissie’s fuel consumption tomorrow compare to her performance over the previous days of the Challenge? We have completed all other tests of our hybrid and are now looking forward to the benchmarking process that will tell us just how fuel-efficient she is.
Here are thoughts from two Annesley girls on their favourite part of the trip so far.
Kasey - "Meeting all the other teams at the Chief Ministers Reception in Darwin was heaps of fun and a great way to get to know everyone who is a part of this amazing experience".
Lauren - "The point of the trip when it finally kicked in that we were on the World Solar Challenge was just out of Darwin city when we were waiting on the side of the highway by our support vehicles and all the solar cars were going past us - and then Lissie went past, and we jumped in the bus and everyone went, ‘this is it!’"
Friday October 25 - Coober Pedy to Port Augusta
We achieved our ultimate goal!
Today was an especially exciting day for us because it was our first day testing Lissie sans electrics, so we could compare her petrol-only performance to her performance as a petrol/electric hybrid.
We’re happy to say our little car achieved exactly what we wanted her to as a hybrid! Although the figures won’t be confirmed until WSC officials announce the results on Sunday, we’ve calculated that Lissie uses just over 10 litres of petrol for every 100 kilometres when driven via petrol only whereas when she’s switched petrol/electric hybrid mode she uses around 7 litres. That’s a 30% reduction in petrol consumption. We’re very proud!
Our team travelled approximately 550km from Coober Pedy (where we had time to visit the underground opal museum while we participated in the morning public display) to Port Augusta today, with only driver/navigator swap-over stops and a lunch stop. The roadhouse café staff must not have been informed the WSC would be cruising past because there was only one person in the kitchen. With much running around, she did a great job but I bet she’ll sleep well tonight.
The landscape changed a fair bit today. The scenery on either side of the highway transformed from flat red earth with little vegetation to a browner coloured earth that was hilly in spots and quite shrubby, especially as we got close to Port Augusta. It was lovely to see some colour.
We had dinner out tonight, wandering into the city centre to eat at a local restaurant, where Meg Craven (the EOS Project surrogate mother) read out a letter written by a long time supporter of Annesley’s EOS Project and we swapped stories about our amazing trip.
It is incredible to think our journey is almost over. It has flown by! We are only 298 kilometres from Adelaide, where we should cross our destination check point at around 12:30pm tomorrow and have our final fuel measurements taken.
At 2pm the Greenfleet vehicles will travel to Victoria Square in convoy with a police escort for the Ceremonial finish and public vehicle displays. Once that finishes at 4pm, we will spruce ourselves up for the Civil Reception, being held for all participants at 6pm in the Town Hall. Then, all Greenfleet Technology Class entrants will exhibit their vehicles at the Greenfleet Emerging Transport Technology Conference at Adelaide Convention Centre on 29 and 30 October.
The Panasonic World Solar Challenge has been an adventure of a lifetime in every respect. We are very grateful for the support of our major sponsors, Mortgage Choice and Holden, and for the wonderful efforts and advice of those who travelled with us. The 2007 team has become a close family and will never forget this experience we have been so fortunate to enjoy. Annesley looks forward to its next Challenge!
